Ivy league basketball tournament headed to Yale

Coach James Jones and the Yale men's basketball team tip off Ivy League play Friday against Brown.

Coach James Jones and the Yale men's basketball team tip off Ivy League play Friday against Brown.

Photo: Associated Press File Photo

Photo: Associated Press File Photo

Image
1of/7

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 7

Coach James Jones and the Yale men's basketball team tip off Ivy League play Friday against Brown.

Coach James Jones and the Yale men's basketball team tip off Ivy League play Friday against Brown.

Photo: Associated Press File Photo

Ivy league basketball tournament headed to Yale

1 / 7

Back to Gallery

New Haven will be directly involved in college basketball’s championship week this coming season.

The Ivy League announced on Thursday that its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be held at Yale’s John J. Lee Amphitheater at Payne Whitney Gynmasium.

The 2019 tournaments will be held March 16 and 17, with the top four men’s and women’s teams competing for the Ivy’s automatic NCAA berths. The event, established in 2017, was held at the Palestra in Philadelphia the past two seasons.

“It’s going to be a great environment,” promised Yale head coach James Jones. “Better get your tickets early.”

Jones had long campaigned for an Ivy League tournament, and also believed it should be held in a more centrally-located site. Yale, with its proximity to New York City and Boston, fits that bill as well as any other school in the Ivy.

Of course, Lee Amphitheater, which lists its capacity at 2,532, is a much smaller venue than the Palestra, which seats 8,722. But that could actually add to the charm of this year’s tournament, according to Jones.

“If you don’t get tickets early, you’re not getting tickets,” said the 19th-year head coach. “The fact that it’s sold-out, overflowing, people scalping tickets out front — I think that adds a lot of atmosphere to the gym.”

The top four teams in the regular season standings make the Ivy tournament. And don’t worry too much about Yale not qualifying. In Jones’ 19 years as head coach, the Bulldogs have only finished out of the top four once (his very first season).

With talented rising junior Miye Oni back in the fold, and with ultra-talented rising junior Jordan Bruner back from knee injuries, not to mention a group of solid seniors and a strong incoming group of freshmen, the Bulldogs should vie for the league title next season.

“I feel pretty good about our chances,” Jones said. “Obviously, you’ve got to still play the games. We’ve grown, we get Bruner back next year, some incoming freshmen are gonna help us. The league’s really good. Everybody’s got young players.”

“We look forward to bringing the Ivy League Basketball Tournaments to another historic Ivy League venue in 2019,” Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris said in a release. “Ivy Madness unites the high-quality level of basketball in our League with the excitement of March. We anticipate another electrifying atmosphere in New Haven.”

Saturday will feature four semifinals: two men’s games (12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.) and two women’s games (6 p.m. and approximately 30 minutes after the first women’s semifinal). The men’s championship is set for 12 p.m. The women’s championship game will begin at 4 p.m. All six games of the tournaments will be featured on the ESPN networks.

Ticket information will be released at a future date.

The site for the 2020 Ivy League Basketball Tournaments will be determined at a later date as the League continues to explore various options.

ALL-NEC BASEBALL

New Haven’s Dean Lockery, a senior infielder at Central Connecticut State, and Cheshire’s Dan Schock, a senior outfielder at Sacred Heart, were named first-team All-Northeast Conference.

Lockery, a Fairfield Prep product, batted .331 with 44 runs scored for CCSU. He was fifth in the conference in hitting and fourth with a .443 on-base percentage. Schock is batting .311 with 13 homers and 45 RBIs for Sacred Heart.

Second-team picks included Orange’s Anthony Capozziello, a senior outfielder batting .306 with six homers and 12 stolen bases for Sacred Heart, and Derby’s Mike Kreiger, a junior LHP at LIU Brooklyn, who is 4-2 with five saves and a 1.62 ERA out of the bullpen.